Spring and air cushion



Dec. 23, 1952 J. M. CAUGHEY SPRING AND AIR CUSHION 2 SHEETS--SHEET 1 Filed May 20. 1952' .INVENTOR. JOHN M CAUGHEY J. M. CAUGHEY SPRING AND AIR CUSHION Dec. 23, 1952 2 SHEETSSHEET 2 Filed May 20. 1952 INVENTOR. JOHN M. CAUGHEJ/ BY m fl mwm ATTORNEYS.

Patented Dec. 23.- 1952 SPRING AND AIR oUsHtoN,

John M. Caughey, Adrian, Mich fassignor to Stubnitz-Greene Spring Corporation, Adrian, Mich., a corporation of Michigan I Application May 20, 1952, Serial No. 288,866

4 Claims. (Cl. 155-179) This invention relates to combined spring and air cushions that are quite extensively used in cabs of trucks and other vehicles. It is the object of the invention to provide a spring structure incorporating a fiberboard diaphragm for trapping the air. The spring structure is a double deck spring seat in which the lower deck is formed by spring wire stringers that extend from front to back and have one or more jack spring legs or safety pin type spring legs for yieldingly projecting the mat or deck formed by the stringers and intersecting spring wires. The upper deck is formed by truncated hourglass type springs that are screwed into the intersections of the spring wires and stringers, thereby anchoring the interseating wires to each other to form the deck and also securely anchoring the load supporting springs.

In a spring set up such as this, the problem is to properly locate and secure in place the fiberboard diaphragm or seat bottom. This I accomplish by means of laying the diaphragm on the seat spring frame and the cross channels and then welding thereto a pair of anchor bars which have struck out portions that form knuckles or tunnels to receive and anchor the turned over ends of the jack spring legs of the seat spring.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary plan view of the seat spring cushion with the seat trimming broken away.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary cross section of the same showing the upholstering broken away.

Fig. 3 is a detail, partly in section, of one of the anchoring bars for the spring wire stringers and showing in cross section one of the cross channels.

Fig. 4 is a detail in perspective of a portion of one anchoring bar before this is assembled in the seat spring structure.

Fig. 5 discloses a variation where the cross members are each a single inverted channel.

The seat bottom frame is designated I and comprises an irregular tubular member which has an upstanding flange 2 adapted to take the hooked end 3 of the cross channel 4. This cross channel is made up of two small inverted channels 5 and 6 connected by a larger upstanding channel I. The anchor bars are here shown as J bars 8, however the cross section might be different. These anchor bars have struck up flaps 9 which are in raised position as shown in Fig. 4 before the jack springs I 0 are locked in place.

The sprin structure is made up of a plurality of forwardly and rearwardly running spring wire stringers I I which have at the front and back the safety pin type legs. The turned over ends I2 are fitted behind the flaps 9 and then these flaps are clinched over as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 to anchor the legs and the spring wire stringers in place. Longitudinally running stringer wires I3 have upset portions I4 which rest in dips I5 in the forwardly and rearwardly running stringers. Then the truncated hourglass type springs I6 are screwed through the intersecting stringer wires and when the dent I! in the lowermost coil of the load supporting spring is screwed over the longitudinal stringer I3, this load-supporting spring is locked in place at the intersection. This not only locates and holds the load-supporting springs in properly spaced relation, but it also completes the wire deck by interlocking the intersecting stringer wires.

The assembly is made in this way: The fiber-- board diaphragm or seat bottom I9 is dropped. over the frame and cross channels. Thereuponi the anchoring bars 8 are placed over the fiber-- board diaphragm and the projections 20 caused.

to register with the slots 2| located in the dia-- phragm. It will be noticed that the projection. 29 is a long one, see Fig. 1 and Fig. 4. The slot 2| is correspondingly long. This enables the easy lapping of the projection over some portions of the cross channels and allows the spot welding at 22 of the anchoring strip to one of the inverted channels 5 and 6 or both of these inverted channels, or a single inverted channel may be used as shown in Fig. 5. The turned over ends of the jack spring legs of the stringers are then inserted behind the flaps and the flaps are bent over by a suitable tool to grasp the turned over ends of the legs and thereby hold them in place as shown in Fig. 3. The upper part of the seat spring may be assembled at the seat spring factory and the assembly of the diaphragm and the anchor bars may be made by the body builder or the automobile manufacturer. Or, on the other hand, the entire assembly including the spring and the spring assembly to the frame and the diaphragm may be made by the body builder or the automobile manufacturer.

After the assembly of the spring to the frame the trimming 23 can be drawn down over the irregular tubular frame I and clips 24 may be fastened over the trimming material and the tubular frame member. The irregularity in the tubular frame member forms a seat 25 which permits the clip to be shoved over a portion of the tube to clinch the trimming material to the tubular frame.

What I claim is:

1. A combined seat spring and air cushion having in combination a frame member forming a substantially rectangular enclosure, a plurality of metal cross members, a slotted diaphragm laid over the cross members and a portion of the frame, metal anchor strips having cut out and folded out portions, and a seat spring structure including a plurality of forwardly and rearwardly running spring wire stringers having downturned legs with bent over ends, the said anchor strips having projections which are spot welded through the slots in the diaphragm to the metal cross members and the turned over ends of vthe 7 over legs to form knuckles or tunnels in which the turned over portions of the legs are trapped.

2. The combination claimed in claim 1 in which the metal cross members are inverted channels and the anchor strips are spot welded to the cross channels at the projections through the slots in the diaphragm.

3. The combination claimed in claim 1 in which the anchor strips are d strips and the struck up portions of the strips are flaps that are pinched against the turned over ends of the legs which are thereby trapped in the gullet of the J bar.

4. The combination claimed in claim 2 in which the diaphragm is fiberboard.

' JOHN M. CAUGHEY.

No references cited. 

